'Edges' by Linda Nagata
'Edges' by Linda Nagata

The good

  • Cool premise: we have technology in the future that lets you create “ghosts” of yourself, which are digital copies of your consciousness. You can upload these ghosts into a computer or into a new body; that body could be cloned from your original body or a totally different body (so you can, for example, change races, gender, etc). These ghosts can then run around on their own and have their own experiences. Later on, you can merge the ghosts back together, so the resulting person has the joint experiences of all of them. It’s similar to the premise of Altered Carbon, although the larger focus on multiple ghosts existing at the same time, and being able to merge them back together, is a cool twist.

  • An intriguing look at a completely different type of mind in an alien race called the Chenzeme, who operate based on a hive mind / consensus based system. It’s refreshing to see aliens that aren’t just green humanoids.

  • An intriguing villain and some fun battles.

The not so good

  • The characters in the story feel oddly lifeless. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but their dialog and actions doesn’t feel particularly human.

  • The plot is a bit meandering in the first half, but once the story gets going, it gets good… Only to leave you hanging at the end.

Rating: 4 stars